What’s new in Phasmophobia’s Ascension update?

Rally up, ghost hunters. The biggest update to Phasmophobia called Ascension is here, and it introduces a bunch of changes and new additions to the game.

The ghost-hunting game came out in late 2020 and immediately shook up the gaming world, stealing the hearts of millions of players around the world. Since then, the developers from Kinetic Studios have worked on a bunch of updates, but none has been as enormous as Ascension.

Ascension went live on Aug. 17, bringing a bunch of players back to the game—and for good reason. With its massive update to items, rewards, and a number of fresh additions, the game has tons of new features to explore.

New item changes in Phasmophobia Ascension update

The newest update basically overhauled the item system in Phasmophobia, introducing three tiers to each item. Each tier will cost more money to unlock but will cost the same to bring into a contract. To upgrade certain items, players need to reach the required level and head to the shop to do so.

It’s a change that could add a bit of flavor to items in Phasmophobia since more experienced players at one point usually had so much cash, they had no idea what to spend it on. It also adds another layer to the character’s progression.

Additionally, the devs decided to rename a bunch of items, so the update tiers are better accommodated. Here’s the list of new names.

• Fingerprints (evidence) → Ultraviolet
• Footsteps (photos and descriptions) → Footprints
• Candles and Lantern → Firelight
• Matchbox and Lighters → Igniter
• Smudge Sticks and Censer → Incense
• Camcorders and Movie Camera → Video Camera
• Glowsticks and UV torches → UV Light
• Sanity Drink, Pills, and Shot → Sanity Medication
• Head Mounted Camera, Flashlight, and Goggles → Head Gear
• Weak or Strong flashlights → Flashlight

That’s not all. Some items were also adjusted so that they are more usable or feel more realistic, frankly speaking, at least in terms of gameplay.

For example, the way D.O.T.S interacts with ghosts has been tweaked, at long last. The item often felt buggy and either showed ghosts all the time or produced a single interaction throughout 15 minutes (or we’re just terrible ghost hunters).

A parabolic microphone, on the other hand, will muffle all other sounds that are coming from the direction you’re not pointing toward, which feels like a much-needed improvement. Most importantly, however, thermometers will finally be counted as starter items, so no need to worry about this crucial item from now on.

• You will no longer get duplicate DOTS ghosts, or DOTS triggering during events, hunts, or other interactions.
• Ghosts with DOTS evidence can now enter a short “DOTS state”; where they are temporarily visible with infrared light, during this time they will wander towards the nearest player before disappearing (if the player is in the same room).
• DOTS Ghost photos now count as normal ghost photos.
• You can now turn off Firelights by pressing the Use button again while holding it.
• Firelights now have a duration for their effects, and no longer stop the sanity drain completely, with different amounts of sanity benefits per tier.
• When using a parabolic microphone, you will now clearly hear all sounds you are aiming toward, within range, while all other sounds will be muffled.
• The interval in which the ghost checks if an Incense is active, is now much smaller, making repelling the ghost much more consistent.
• Using Incense during another Incense’s effect will now reset the timer instead of doing nothing.
• Salt will now only reveal footprints if the ghost has Ultraviolet evidence.
• UV prints must now be charged by a UV light to take a successful photo.
• Footprints will be affected by ghost traits similar to Fingerprints.
• Glowsticks can now be used again after they dim to shake and revitalize the light they produce.
• Thermometers are now counted as a starter item alongside the other evidence items.
• The cold breath effect will now show at 5 degrees Celsius and below.
• You must now use a Thermometer to find freezing temperatures at 0 Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) or below.
• To receive a room temperature reading you must now hold the “Use” button for a short period (Tiers II and III only).
• Room temperatures will now be much more consistent between players.
  • Freezing ghosts can lower the temperature to -10C, non-freezing ghosts can lower to one C.
  • Temperatures will now drop at one-third the current speed if the temperature is below the minimum weather temperature.
• Max amount of tripods and video cameras reduced to four.
• Ghosts can now throw video cameras like other items.
• Ghosts can now rarely knock over tripods.
• Added a new photo camera system which takes into consideration the distance and view angle of the evidence. This will significantly change the quality of photos.
• Evidence in photos will now need to be closer and centralized to get a higher quality reward.
• The following items are now consumable, meaning you will have to repurchase them with every contract:
  • Crucifix: All tiers
  • Firelight I and II
  • Igniter: All tiers
  • Incense I and II
  • Salt: All tiers
  • Sanity Medication: All tiers

We know, that’s a lot to take in. Nevertheless, looking at the list of the changes and having already played a map or two on the new update, these tweaks make the ghost hunting fresh (and spooky) again. We advise you go on some solo or multiplayer adventures to get the hang of these item changes.

Reward updates in Phasmophobia Ascension update

Those who are avid ghost hunters know how repetitive and boring the rewards system has been in the game. Fortunately, after numerous requests, the devs have finally taken this aspect under the scope. The rewards for objectives, tasks, and weekly challenges alike have been increased to challenge us to actually complete the whole set before leaving a certain map.

The level of each player has also been reset to prestige one, level one, while new players will start at prestige zero, level one.

• Rewards for all objectives, tasks, and the weekly challenge have been increased drastically.
• Any experience earned will now give you the same amount in dollars.
• Rewards for collecting the bone will no longer be affected by the reward multiplier.

General additions and changes in Phasmophobia Ascension update

The devs also revamped some of the general settings and systems in the game, like training, gamepad options, and blocking players.

Related: How to complete the Phasmophobia No Evidence challenge

Basically, there is a new training contract, which we must admit teaches Phasmophobia’s mechanics much better than the previous one. And if you somehow bump into a toxic ghost hunter, and you don’t want to team up to Ghostbusters with them, you will have the chance to block them. Besides, the devs adjusted and added some minor general settings, which will slightly improve the experience.

• Added gamepad UI button controls for the Journal, voice recognition text, and the main menu screen.
• Replaced gamepad UI navigation with a virtual on-screen cursor.
• Upgraded the Unity engine for many performance improvements.
• Swapped from the Forward to Forward+ renderer. With this, turning on multiple lights should no longer reduce your performance drastically.
• Added a help (?) button above the equipment list to explain the new icons to the player.
• Clicking on any Equipment panel in the shop or loadout pages will now open a new window displaying new information and buttons for Upgrading.
• A small Tier button has been added to the top left of each equipment item in the Shop, which you can click to quickly cycle through unlocked Upgrades.
• New gameplay Descriptions and Lore notes have been added to all equipment, viewable on the Upgrade screen.
• You can now set a loadout to Auto-Buy. This will refill any missing items when finishing a mission, but only you have the money to buy all the missing items.
• Added range indicators while placing to all Ghost-Writing Books and Motion Sensor III.
• Added platform-specific icons to the player cards and recent player’s page.
• Player voices will now be affected by audio effects such as the Sunny Meadows hallway reverb.
• Added gamepad UI button controls for the Journal, voice recognition text, and the main menu screen.
• Added a fade to the VR head collision.
• When the game loads into a map or the main menu it will now always be a smooth fade for VR and NonVR.
• The ghost will now leave EMF when blowing out a candle.
• Several equipment items can now be turned on and off by pressing use when aiming at them while they are placed.
• Added support for the Quest Pro.
• Added support for the Vive Focus three.
• The in-game voice system has been replaced with Photon Voice.
• Replaced and added several new sounds for equipment.
• Moved the camera view for the Head Mounted Camera so that it’s slightly easier to watch other player’s view.
• Crucifixes will now have an extra 50 percent range (per Tier) against Demons.
• Incense will now have an extra 50 percent duration (per Tier) against Moroi.
• Rebaked lighting in all locations, main menu, and training.
• Increased the height of the Equipment List panel in the lobby.
• Increased the penalty for choosing a Monkey Paw in Custom games.
• “I wish to see the ghost” will no longer teleport the ghost in front of you, instead it will reveal it where the ghost is, in its current position.
• Turning off “Flashlights” in Custom difficulty will now turn off all types of flashlights (DOTS I, UV II etc).
• Updated all equipment loadouts for Weekly Challenges to accommodate Tiers, some are harder some are easier.
• Reduced the chance for a ghost to interact with a door as it was overpowering other interactions.
• Moved the Tarot Cards in the Collection cabinet so you can see them all at once on all aspect ratios.
• Candles found inside contracts can still be lit, but are no longer grabbable and do not provide any sanity-altering effects.
• The “Take a Ghost photo” objective will no longer count if you take a ghost photo when your journal is already full.
• Light range has been reduced and will no longer cast shadows to save performance.
• Improved the performance of the fountain in Sunny Meadows.
• Removed distortion for VR Parabolic microphone glass.
• Improved support for new HTC VR headsets.
• Replaced Turkish font to make it more readable.
• VR Smooth Monitor View has been renamed to Social Screen Mode.
• Several candles in the Sunny Meadows chapel have been adjusted.
  • Light range has been reduced and will no longer cast shadows to save performance.
  • The fallen Candelabras will now start off, and cannot be re-lit.

These changes have once again made Phasmophobia an enjoyable game, which after putting dozens of hours into it, has become plain boring. We’ll definitely be diving into the title during the upcoming nights. We hope we’re brave enough to manage.